Still Movin' on Up

I have a job! It's great to finally have the next piece in place. (I know I used pretty much the same title for a blog recently...but I couldn't come up with anything better.)

On June 20, I will finally start my career as an engineer with Butler America in West Lafayette, Indiana. They are an engineering firm, and their primary customer out of this office is Sikorsky Helicopters. They do a lot of work with the Black Hawk!

I am not yet precisely sure what I will be doing. During my interview this week, I was told that help was needed pretty much everywhere in every group in the office, but it was not specified which group I would be working in. Once I know, I'll be sure to write about it! (At least, what I'd be able to share.)

It puts a thorn in my dad's side, however, that I will be making just as much money as he does. His quote: "I have been working for thirty years and am just NOW making as much as you will be." A piece of paper written in calligraphy from Purdue University can go a long way.

I am simultaneously excited, nervous, and horrified about entering the real world. Mostly excited about not having homework anymore. One thing is for sure, however; this month is going to be one of the biggest months of my life.

Purdue Grand Prix - So Much Fail

Yesterday, I finally attended Purdue Grand Prix. After five years at Purdue and other experiences trying to interact with the Grand Prix Foundation in years past, I must say, it is the most poorly run organization I have ever seen, and it is a miracle the event happens at all each year.

My first three years, I was a member of Purdue Motorsports Association, one of many organizations that merged into MAP (Motorsports at Purdue). Unfortunately, I no longer had the time to participate once I became an RA. Anyway, they always talked about how poorly run Grand Prix was. I always thought it was in jest, but this year taught me first-hand.

As an RA, I was trying to put together an event for the hall to pay for tickets to go to the race. There was no information about ticket sales until a mere TEN DAYS before the race. Keep in mind that track activity had begun a few weeks before that. As soon as tickets went on sale, I emailed the director of sales to see if we could be invoiced for twenty tickets, as we need to transfer money to an account if it's through a Purdue club. I never heard back. Tuesday of last week, I emailed their president, and never heard back. Finally, on my way out of town to go see 30 Seconds, I stopped by their ticket sales booth.

The girl running the table at Stewart west foyer told me to go down to their office in the basement to get things taken care of. Fair enough. I head downstairs, and there are two officers in there talking to the Jimmy John's guy. One of them noticed me and asked what I needed. I had to wait until they were done with the Jimmy John's guy. They were done talking business after five minutes. I sat there another 15 until they finally filled out a VERY unofficial invoice (not the actual real Purdue one used for transactions, but basically a piece of paper that said "you owe us $140").

Saturday, the original race day finally comes around. It was raining and crappy and there was a very good chance that the race would be postponed. According to the hall's team, that decision came around 1:15-1:30 pm. There was no news posted anywhere on the internet until about 1:40, and we almost had everyone signed up to go out the door until someone from the hall's team came back from the track and said that the race had been postponed until Sunday.

So Sunday rolls around, and only a few people actually came; 18 had signed up, but only 6 showed up, two of which weren't actually signed up. So we walk to Wiley dining court where a shuttle is supposed to pick people up and take them to the race. And we wait. And wait. And wait. About 20 minutes. Finally, about fifteen minutes before the race was supposed to start, we decide to take the half-hour trek to the track. When we got there, the shuttle did as well.

We finally get to the track, and there is no one to collect tickets. This may be because it was a rain date, but still, the fact that the hall spent $140 for tickets was futile at that point. At this point, I was thoroughly convinced that Grand Prix Foundation was the most poorly run organization I had ever seen. As an RA, if I had months to plan an event (quite literally, it's the ONLY thing they do) and it turned out as poorly as Grand Prix, I would not get any credit for it.

Grand Prix has sponsorship from many restaurants in West Lafayette. They even have a corporate sponsor in Lockheed Martin, and this year marked the first in a new partnership with the IZOD IndyCar Series. Ed Carpenter and Sarah Fisher served as Grand Marshals for the race, and I'm truly embarrassed for the farce of a race they witnessed. I'm sure most freshmen don't even realize that there IS a race, and there's probably still some seniors who don't realize there actually is a race. This could be a great event with just a little bit of advertising to actually return the sponsors' investment and get people to the race.

They could probably also boost revenue by lowering prices. $7 advance/$10 at the gate seems a bit steep to me. The only people there seemed to be alumni or frat brothers whose house had a car in the race. Get the broke college student demographic in there!

Anyway, I'm starting to ramble. This university is a great institution, and Grand Prix is one of its biggest events. I know that it could be easily better run with better leadership. Someone needs to step up and get the Grand Prix Foundation pointed back in the right direction, or sponsors may leave and we could lose one of our greatest traditions.

A Disappointing End to a Disappointing Season

On Saturday, I attended my final home football game as a student (in the pressbox thanks to Scott and Peggy Ksander!), and was dismayed when Purdue lost to IU in overtime. I could deal with the loss itself. Purdue's all-time record against IU in football is 70-37-6 (62% winning), and the record is 56-27-3 (65% winning) since the Old Oaken Bucket was introduced in 1925, so IU has to get its wins in sometime. It was the lack of class that IU brought to MY stadium that really made me mad.

I can't find any footage or photos or any additional information about it, but at one point, our quarterback Rob Henry was tackled after making a pass. I looked back down to find the defender mercilessly beating Henry for absolutely no reason. Needless to say, the player was ejected (for the life of me, I can't remember his name).

Then, once overtime was complete, IU charged to OUR sideline and took the bucket from its case rather than waiting for the official presentation. This was quite possibly the most classless act in college football I have ever seen.

Sure, IU may have all the parties, hot girls, and a prettier campus, but I'll take my class, cradle of astronauts, cradle of quarterbacks, and enjoy finding a job after graduation with a degree that is fifth-most recruited in the nation. (That's a general Purdue degree. A Purdue aero degree fluctuates between being first and second-most recruited.)

The Giants Win the World Series?!?

Baseball season has come to an end, and the Giants have won the World Series. When the season started, the Giants were the last team I saw seeing the World Series. I knew they were good, I just didn't think they had the swagger to win a World Series, but they proved me wrong.

Baseball season is over, racing season is over (because NASCAR isn't racing), and football is pretty much already dead to me, as both Purdue and the Bears totally suck. Purdue's basketball team will be disappointing after Robbie Hummel tore his ACL AGAIN, and NBA basketball is too flashy to feel too strongly for the Bulls. The Blackhawks will have another decent season, but I don't see them winning the Stanley Cup again.

145 more days until IndyCar opens the season on March 27 in St. Petersburg, FL, and 150 days until the Cubs open their season at home on April 1 against the Pirates!

Crossing Guards? REALLY?

Today, I had my first encounter with crossing guards on Purdue's campus. Five students were hit by a car the first four days of class this semester, and the university responded by training and hiring crossing guards. When using the "services" of the crossing guard today at 1st & Russel, instead of feeling safe, I felt ashamed. The university responded to five students' inability to cross the street into making anyone that crosses a street with a crossing guard feel totally alienated and incapable of doing something as mindless as crossing the street.

This is going to sound horrible, but, really, isn't it just natural selection if someone can't take their nose out of their phone for ten seconds to safely cross the street and gets hit? We're supposed to be one of the most prestigious schools in the nation. Purdue is considered an Ivy League school by many (and its reputation grows the further away you get), yet we can't assume that the students that were smart enough to get into this school are intelligent enough to cross a street?

I'm not discounting the fact that some of the intersections on campus are very dangerous, because they are. However, I feel it would have been a better investment on the part of the university to redesign these intersections with the help of West Lafayette, among many other options than the empty and non-permanent expenditures on crossing guards.

The Real World is Calling!

This week saw Industrial Roundtable come to campus here at Purdue. IR is a two-day career fair that sees nearly 300 companies, 11,000 company representatives, and 10,000 students. I'm graduating in May, so I had to go find a job!

This was the first year that IR actually went well for me. The fact that I am a graduating senior meant that companies had more interest in me, it seemed. Aerospace has also been real down the last few years, and it is finally picking back up, and most companies had the general consensus that they'd be able to hire more people this year than in years past.

I don't want to reveal any information specifically, but I feel confident I should be able to find a job by the time I graduate! I'm excited to see what the "real world" has in store for me!

Lame Introduction Post

So, this blog originally started on boilercamp.us. I was getting paid to do it, but as such, I felt like I was pressured into posting about specific topics, and couldn't really let myself flow. Now I do it on my own time and my own terms.

So, this is that lame introduction post where I say a few things about myself. I'm 22 and a fifth-year senior in aeronautics and astronautics engineering (aka rocket science) at Purdue University, with a minor in mathematics. I only needed one more class for it, so why not? My specialization is aerodynamics. I love aerodynamics. I don't care where my career takes me, so long as it involves aerodynamics. My dream job, however, is to design Formula 1 race cars. I finally graduate in May, and then the real world awaits!

I am from a small town called Hobart, Indiana, which is in northwest Indiana, or "The Region." It is about 90 miles north of campus, a straight shot up I-65. I also (somehow) find the time to be a resident assistant at McCutcheon Hall on campus.

So what will this blog entail? First off, I LOVE music. Mostly metal. But I'm fairly open-minded and can listen to just about anything but country, because I don't want to listen to some redneck poorly play three chords on his acoustic guitar and talk about how sad he is.

So how did I become a metalhead? The journey begins around a decade ago when I began my quest to become a musician. My dad had gotten a guitar a few years prior, and I decided to pick it up when I was 13. The better I got, the more complex the music I was listening to became. I started with Blink-182, by 15 I was listening to Disturbed, at 16 I was listening to Megadeth and Metallica, at 17 I was listening to Slayer, and the list grows exponentially from there when I began my college career. In March, I started playing bass as well, and I'm finding I'm actually better at both guitar and bass since I started playing bass.

Aside from music, I am also very passionate about auto racing (particularly IndyCar and Formula 1, and I hate NASCAR with a fiery passion) and baseball. It saddens me that baseball season is about over, even more that my Cubs have been a non-contender all season. Bears season is also right around the corner, and we're looking pretty pathetic this year again. I keep telling myself that they went 0-4 in the preseason before the Super Bowl season in 2006, so I can only hope.

Well, that pretty much ends the lame introductory post. Over the next few days, I'll be reposting some of my favorite posts from boilercamp.us here!